Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common form of cancer among males. Overwhelming clinical evidence shows that human prostate cancer has the propensity to metastasize to bone, and the disease appears to progress inevitably from androgen dependent to androgen refractory status, leading to increased patient mortality. This prevalent disease is currently the second leading cause of cancer death among men in the U.S.
There are striking population (race) disparities in prostate cancer risk and survival outcome borne out of current health statistics data. This is particularly evident between African Americans (AA) and their Caucasian American (CA) counterparts.
Epidemiologic studies have shown that higher mortality and recurrence rates of prostate cancer are still seen in AA men even after adjustment for socioeconomic status, environmental factors and health care access. Thus, it is likely that biological differences account for some of the cancer disparities.
There remains a great need to study the pathological differences between AA and CA men and develop new detection and treatment options tailored to each population.